Brothers
by Lilthinker15
Summary: One-shot describing how Ginny, Harry, Ron and Hermione feel about their "brothers," both biological and otherwise.


_Brothers_

Ginny Weasley had brothers in abundance. All redheaded, all bold, all brutal, all masculine, all the time. And there was her, looking so delicate and gentle, but burning with all the boldness and brutality and masculinity that came with the red hair and the Weasley name. She was smart and quick tempered. She was stern and loving. She was athletic and brave. She was a Gryffindor and proud. She was everything her brothers were. But she was often seen as less than they. Because she was a girl and had long hair and breasts and a slender waist and curvy hips. She sometimes felt that the abundance of boys in her home were her best gift and worst damnation. She had never been uncomfortable with boys. She was athletic. She believed anything to be possible. But she also didn't do feminine well. And some blokes happened to find feminine attractive. But really, Ginny Weasley didn't want that kind of bloke. She wanted a bloke who, like her brothers, liked her just the way she was, hyper and athletic and quick tempered and playful. She wanted someone who would take her just the way she was and who knew her well. She wanted someone her brothers would approve of. And she counted herself the luckiest girl in the world to have found him in Harry Potter. When the two of them had children, she insisted that she wanted three. Harry would be content with two. But she wanted her son to have a brother or her daughter to have a sister. She couldn't imagine what her household would be without it.

Harry Potter had once thought that brothers were awful things. He thought brothers would surely act towards each other as Dudley and himself did. He didn't understand how brothers truly were until he got to know the Weasley family. Ron had more brothers than he knew what to do with. But every single one of them was a perfect piece of the family and Harry just couldn't imagine their family without any one of them. The bold, smart, athletic, adventurous Charlie, cool, charming Bill, uptight, ambitious Percy, joking, life-of-the-party Fred and George, and finally, his best friend, goofy, awkward, gangly Ron. And all of their attitudes together, the teasing, and joking, the dinner table conversations and the pranks, the anger, the revenge, the shunning, the insulting, all of it added up to something that was more beautiful than Harry could possibly describe to anyone. He was just so very happy that he was an honorary Weasley. He was just so very grateful to be allowed to have brothers, to fit into their family, subtle, brooding, courageous, insecure Harry, just as different from the others as they were from each other, but, at heart, just exactly the same. He couldn't imagine what his life would be like without them.

Sometimes Ron Weasley really hated having brothers. Between his four older brothers he stood in a long shadow full of head boy titles, quidditch players, and top scholars. And then there was Ron, not the brightest, not the most athletic, not the most ambitious or responsible. But, somehow, the luckiest because he had Harry Potter as a best friend. He always felt that Harry would be happier as a best friend to one of the other Weasley boys. He really hated being the incompetent one. And he thought he'd always feel bitter towards his elder brothers. That is, until he watched one of them die. Then he realized that brothers really were the most beautiful things in the world. They loved each other without limits, in spite of all their flaws, they needed each other. And he cried and cried for his brother's death because without him, Ron was incomplete. And, in spite of all the times he'd hated having brothers, losing one showed him just what his life would have been like without them. And he couldn't imagine ever hating anything more.

Hermione Granger had never once wanted a brother. Boys were slobs, they were irresponsible and silly. But in her first year when she befriended Harry and Ron, she finally understood why her friends had been so fond of their big brothers. Yes, boys were messy and silly and nine times out of ten they just got in her way. But they were her boys. And, like a good "big sister" would, she took care of them. As they grew and her feelings about Ron changed, Harry became her only "brother" and he certainly needed taking care of. But, when she married Ron, she married into a whole family of brothers. And they all treated her like a sister. So, when she had Hugo, giving her daughter a brother, she was so grateful that little Rose would know what it was to be a big sister. She knew she'd be a completely different person if she had never had brothers and she couldn't imagine it. Hermione got what she had wanted least of all, and it had turned out to be what she needed more than anything.


End file.
